Welcome to Odaat Chat, my name is Arlina and I’ll be your host. In case you didn’t know, ODAAT stands for “one day at a time”. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and leave a 5 star review, it helps to keep the lights on. The purpose of podcast  is to clear up a lot of misconceptions about addiction and recovery, but to also to share the teachers, ideas and exercises that have helped me on my own journey over the last 22 years that fall outside the parameters of 12 step groups. Today I’d like to share a little productivity hack I’ve been experimenting with over the last year. It’s called “The 5 minute-journal”. It’s a simple journal that combines several practices into a daily 5 minute exercise that can be done first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. I actually just do the whole thing once a day in the morning. What it is, is a short inspiring quote, a few lines for you to write what you are grateful for, then 3 things that would make the day amazing and a daily affirmation. These are to be done in the morning, then at night, you write 3 amazing things that happened and what you could have done better. So the experience I have had with this is similar to the one I had years ago when Simple Abundance was super popular. It literally retrains your brain to start looking for the positive aspects of life, but also it helps to quantify happiness. When done regularly, the end result is an amazing feeling of persistent contentment and peace that I’m fulfilling my life’s purpose. And for me that is huge. You can find a link to it on my website at odaatchat.com In this episode I’ll be talking with Patrick who shares what it was like moving to the US from Ireland, life with a sober spouse and kids and anonymity. in the high tech world that is Silicon Valley among many other things. Patrick is a dear friend who is endlessly charming and will be impossible to live with after this episode airs, but there you go. And with that, please enjoy this episode with Patrick.   There will be show notes on the website and an opportunity for you to leave comments and feedback.   And with that, please enjoy this episode with Patrick Peace & Love, Arlina